Hong Kong vs ShangHai

I have now been to Shanghai so am coming back to this thread as promised above! I had a great time there - it's a vibrant, exciting city with lots to do, and we also spent 3 days on excursions to places out of the city (2 days to Hangzhou and 1 day to one of the canal towns, Zhujiajiao). There are plenty of other options from the city too including Nanjing, Suzhou and some other canal towns which I have heard good things about. All in all though, I definitely preferred Hong Kong as there is more to do and it's a prettier city overall. I travelled with a Chinese friend from Beijing when I was in Shanghai and she says Beijing is much better than Shanghai, but she was biased of course!

12.
Posted bytravel-sha(Budding Member 4 posts) 8y
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"If you have been to HK do you say you have been to China or not? When people ask me I always say "yes I have been to China, well...Hong Kong". And they always reply with "so not really China then". "I do agree on it. There are two fully different cities. HK looks like a western city. Although Shanghai is a international mitropolis it's still much more traditional. 2 gov 2 system.As bex76 said you can go to lots of cities around Shanghai (Suzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Nanjing etc). It just take about 2hours from Shanghai to those cities by train.(to save time you may buy "Dongche" means speed train).

All in all though, I definitely preferred Hong Kong as there is more to do and it's a prettier city overall. I travelled with a Chinese friend from Beijing when I was in Shanghai and she says Beijing is much better than Shanghai, but she was biased of course!

Beijing is better, becoz its beijing... and one needs to see Tianamen Square. I just go like, whoa, so this is how a communist country look like. You wont get that in Shanghai.

HK is more charming. I was dissappointed in Shanghai. I was expecting Paris. What I got was ASIA. The atmosphere was so Asia and its not TOKYO or Singapore. Its another Chinese city.

HK looks so good in maps. HK has a theme park feeling, while shanghai is a growing forrest of skycrapers.I guess its just that I was expecting PARIS.

14.
Posted byZoe-China(Budding Member 7 posts) 8y
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Well, it's my first post. I strongly recommend Beijing, for Beijing is the economic and cultural center of China. It's your first time to come to China. Of course, Beijing is a must-go. You can take a look at the magnificent Forbidden City, the Great Wall. These are symbols of China. Surely you will be impressed.

15.
Posted byjackw(Budding Member 5 posts) 5y
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Quoting Swept Away

Quoting bex76

All in all though, I definitely preferred Hong Kong as there is more to do and it's a prettier city overall. I travelled with a Chinese friend from Beijing when I was in Shanghai and she says Beijing is much better than Shanghai, but she was biased of course!

Beijing is better, becoz its beijing... and one needs to see Tianamen Square. I just go like, whoa, so this is how a communist country look like. You wont get that in Shanghai.

HK is more charming. I was dissappointed in Shanghai. I was expecting Paris. What I got was ASIA. The atmosphere was so Asia and its not TOKYO or Singapore. Its another Chinese city.

HK looks so good in maps. HK has a theme park feeling, while shanghai is a growing forrest of skycrapers.I guess its just that I was expecting PARIS.

Look history , if you like seeing old stuff go Xian not Beijing. Shanghai & HK - so much different except the same 150 years old city. Only retarded will try to compare it . I lived 10 : 10 years in both cities : Shanghai and Hong , another 10 in Europe. HK native are in general very naive and act/think like a spoiled kid; as opposed to Shanghai native who most are very calculative, articulative and have strong territory defense. I feel the free air whenever I go back Hong Kong and I miss the food in Shanghai and this is the only reason I go back Shanghai, not those ugly faked historic buildings or sky scrappers. all about money I see enough such people already.. why going to a place full of money wised biased people ??????

The Bund is the most over rated tourist site in China. I was there in 2008 and 2009 and managed to have nice photos of myself in the railing (you do call it railings, those fences which were replaced by CONCRETE, it really kills the view or the photo... ) I came back in 2010, and I have new photos with the grey wall behind me... making it look like I am inside a building and the image behind is from my office window.... It was tragic.

The place is extremely crowded with chinese tourist eager to take a photo with that pearl tower and that building that looks like a giant can opener...

Wuhan had a better board but nobody raves about because has so many of these boulevard, they even built one in VIENTIENE which reduced the charming banks of the Mekong to a CHINESE park by the river.

But one of my best buddy lives there, so I might be back, Shanghai Vol. 4